Traverse Area Historical Society History Series: A Murder in Eastport

Event Navigation

The Traverse Area Historical Society will present a series of programs related to local history. This month the presenter will be:

Norton Bretz who will talk about A Murder in Eastport: An 1870 Family Story of Racial Profiling.

This talk will examine a fascinating 1870 murder that echoes issues our country still deals with today.

On June 12, 1870, a black man named William Swan was walking along what is now US31 near near Eastport. William and his family had been living in the Charlevoix area for over five years, the only black residents of the county. He was was shot and killed by two Civil War veterans, for no apparent reason. The shooters would be acquitted.

Come hear Mr. Bretz, a descendant of these veterans, give a lively recounting of this event and its aftermath.
Norton Bretz President of the Eastport Historical Society. He spent his career as a nuclear physicist at Princeton University. He is a Michigan native who grew up spending summers in Eastport.